Fire Emblem: The Phantom Gates
by Author Roy
Summary: In an alternate world of swords and sorcery, Ranma and his friends are dragged into an epic struggle for power. At the heart of all conflict is that which is known in fairy tales as the legendary Fire Emblem...
1. The Devoted

--

Prologue:  
A Gathering of Storms

--

In a dark room, three cloaked figures stood over a bed with another figure lying in it. They watched silently as the figure in the bed drew his last breaths.

"My son," The figure in the bed rasped, holding a hand up to one of the cloaked men. The man he spoke to wrapped his own hands around the one offered.

"Father…"

"My son, I must apologize for my untimely departure from this world. You are ill-prepared to lead an empire…"

"This is not of your doing, father," The younger man responded. "This… this treachery…"

"Do not let your anger cloud your mind," the man rasped out. "Remember that there are still things that must be done. You must not let my end give you pause. If anything, let it hasten you."

"Your father is right, my prince," one of the other cloaked figures said. "There will be time to mourn once we are sure we will survive. For now…"

"I know!" The young prince snapped. "But… I… I!" After a moment of struggling to continue speaking, he knelt and hung his head down. "I'm sorry, father. I'm getting… sentimental in your presence." The older man smiled weakly and slowly held up a hand to his son's face, drying the wetness that had appeared on his cheeks. The young prince looked up into his father's eyes.

"If you must cry, then do so quickly and move on," The older man said. "This is neither the end for me or you. We will meet again after this day, my son. And when that happens, your mother will be there as well." The young prince remained silent as he and the other two figures watched their leader's eyes glaze up and his smile widened. "Yes. It's time for me to meet up with your mother again… man was she hot."

The tallest figure, who hadn't yet spoken snorted.

"Understatement of a lifetime, my friend."

The emperor's smile only widened further, but he didn't say anything. After a long moment, the prince hung his head again.

The tall figure reached over and shut the dead man's eyelids.

"Your father was right, my prince. We cannot let this stop us. The search must continue."

"I know, Sage," The young prince said, standing. "Fetch my private attendants. I am leaving on a personal journey to find this Fire Emblem tomorrow." The other cloaked figures froze at his words. "Our mistake has been trusting others to do this for us. Our own countrymen have low tolerance for human society, and humans would as soon as give us their precious relics as they would feed themselves to us," The prince said. "This is something that I must do myself." After a moment of hesitation, the shorter figure nodded.

"Yes, my prince. Mint and Lime will be ready to go by tomorrow morning."

The prince turned away from his father's corpse and looked out the window.

"Good. We will leave at that time."

--

Chapter One:  
The Devoted

--

Gwyar grinned amongst the laughter and carousing in the musty, well-lit tavern. He was only one of many ruffians sitting at a table covered in golden coins and jewelry. Anyone who looked at him would see a big, hairy muscular man with red facial hair and a fair share of battle scars who wore only a dirty, torn yellow sleeveless tunic that showed off his bulging triceps and biceps, short dark brown trousers kept up with a belt, leather boots and finally a leather pauldron on each shoulder. Beside him was an axe forged entirely of steel, handle and all. All of the other men in the establishment were of similar build and attire, and they each had a variety of swords and axes of their own, most of them stained with blood and dirt. But there was one thing that couldn't be easily seen about Gwyar that set him apart from the rest.

He was their leader.

"All right, rogues!" Gwyar bellowed over all of the other drunken foolishness, easily calling all of the attention in the tavern to himself. "Tonight, we celebrate th' deaths o' them '_Highland Bears'_ scumbags 'et thought they could just move in on our territory and _disrespect_ us!" Amidst the cheers of his men, he raised his mug into the air. "To victory! And may death come to all who oppose us!" The cheers rose to a deafening roar as all of the men in the tavern joined in toasting to the defeat of their enemies. Gwyar looked over at the bar and grinned. "Barkeep! Another round… for the _Bloody Blades!_"

--

Outside, two young men stood at the door to the tavern. One of them, wore attire similar to Gwyar's, except that his tunic was a darker yellow, his trousers black and he wore only one pauldron as well as a spotted black and yellow bandana. He wore a single iron axe which hung from a leather shoulder strap and a small satchel that hung from his belt. The other young man bore his long black hair in a braided pigtail and had slightly more elaborate clothing; a red silk shirt that had intricate embroideries and designs, folded back cuffs and a high collar, while his loose cotton pants were the same color as his companion's. A sheathed sword hung from the belt on his waist, and on his right leg was another belt that held a holstered dagger.

"Are you sure this is okay, Saotome?"

"Relax! Kasumi won't mind the wait. We can afford ourselves a treat."

The jovial atmosphere and lighting looked inviting enough to both of them since it was the night of the new moon and very dark outside, but one of them still had their doubts.

"I don't know, Saotome… It looks like some of the local thugs have set up shop in there…" The bandana sporting youth stuck his head in and looked around. "I don't think we'll be welcome."

"Ah, we'll be _fine_. Come on, what's the worst that could happen?" The one called Saotome said, casually walking in.

"Famous last words," his companion muttered, but reluctantly followed after him. The obnoxiously loud cheering only got louder as they walked inside, but neither of them paid it any heed. The two of them sat at the bar and the pigtailed youth raised a hand.

"Yo!" He called out, facing the bartender. The man turned and saw them almost immediately, despite all the loud racket. "You got some water?" The older man nodded and he continued. "We'll both have some water, then. You serve food here, right?" Again, the man nodded. "Okay, lessee. Five orders of beef steak, four drumsticks and a side of spinach. And for my friend here…"

"Six orders of pork chops, two beef steaks and two drumsticks. Oh, and I'd like some honey in my water, please." All the while, the bartender nodded, a small grin growing on his face.

"And you have the money for all this?" He asked, sounding about ready to laugh at them.

"Oh yes, here," The young man with the bandana pulled the satchel from his waist and opened it. He pulled out a handful of golden coins and set them on the counter. "This should cover it." The bartender reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out his glasses, then grabbed and inspected one of the coins closely. A moment later, he nodded to himself and gathered the rest of them.

"It'll be ready in twenty minutes," The man said as he walked to, opened and entered a door that presumably led to the kitchen.

"There. See, now was that so bad, Ryoga?"

"Hmph. I still think we should have looked for someplace else," Ryoga snapped back. "This place is too crowded, bandits or no. They're so damn loud, too."

"Ehh, ain't nothin' gonna happen to us. Stop worryin' about it already. Sheesh, you're almost as bad as Akane, and she's a woman."

"What was that, Saotome?" The fanged youth stood and clenched his fists.

"Oh shut up. We'll get time to scrap later. Let's just relax and enjoy the atmosphere, okay?"

"Hmph… Whatever." Ryoga sat back down and faced forward. "Say, Ranma…"

"Yeah?" The pigtailed teen looked over at his companion.

"Do you think Miss Akane… likes me?"

"Hah, no way." Ranma snorted and pat his friend on the back. "That muscle-bound brute? She doesn't have the capacity to like men! Trust me, you're much better going after Kasumi or Nabiki. And Nabiki is too smart for you, and Kasumi has no interest in younger men."

Ryoga frowned at Ranma's words.

"Are you calling me stupid?" He demanded, standing up again, knocking Ranma's hand away from his shoulder.

"_No_, man! Just saying that Nabiki is too smart in general! Everyone knows smart chicks are full of it," Ranma said in a calming voice.

"Oh…" Ryoga sat back down yet again, then frowned. "Hey, since when are you qualified to give out romantic advice?"

"I've _had_ my fair share of _romantic_ _encounters _with the ladies," Ranma stated in a suave tone. Ryoga rolled his eyes.

"You're the guy who freezes up whenever anything with breasts even touches you," He snorted, crossing his arms.

"Yeah right… and you're one to talk. Your little soldier is always quick to stand at attention, isn't he?"

"Do you, or do you not want to fight?" Ryoga demanded.

"You're the one who keeps starting shit, damn," Ranma said, folding his arms and hunching over the counter. "Hmph. I knew I should have left you at the base."

"But they told both of us to get food," Ryoga started.

"I could have left you to find your own way," Ranma clarified. "Anyway, just shut up. Conversation with you is always dull."

"…You…hmph. Idiot. Fine, whatever." And so, the two sat there, unimposing and silent as could be as they waited for their meals.

The wait was long and boring, despite all of the excitement that went on around them. When it finally arrived, they ate quickly and noisily, but their disgusting display went ignored by all. When they finished, they both stood up and started for the exit.

"Ey! Hold it!" One of the thugs in the tavern called out. The two continued walking, neither thinking that they were the ones being spoken to. "Ey! You scrawny little punks!" When again, they simply kept walking, the thug growled and stood up, quickly walking over to the two teens about to walk out of the door. With massive meaty hands, he grabbed both of them by their shirts.

"And just where do ye think yer goin, usin' our tavern without pay'n any tribute?"

Ranma and Ryoga looked over their shoulders at the imposing figure who held them in place.

"Tribute?" Ranma asked.

"Tha's right," The man said, grinning. "This whole town belongs to the _Bloody Blades_, y'see. Anythin' that happens here, 'n you gotta go through us."

"I'm sure the constable would disagree." Ryoga snorted. The big man narrowed his eyes at them and lifted them up into the air and turned around, tossing them back inside the tavern. They both landed on one of the tables, face down. Gold and ale spilled off of the table as they slid across it, before finally falling down on the other side.

"Ow…What the hell…" Ranma looked up and noticed that some of the many brutes in the tavern was glaring down at him. "Um, hi?"

"Damn it." Beside him, Ryoga was looking around the entire tavern, which was starting to quiet rather quickly. "I knew something was going to happen."

"So you two boys think you can hold off on payin' tribute, eh?" They stood up as quickly as they could manage as the big, dangerous looking man who'd grabbed them lumbered over towards them. With each of the giant of a man's steps, the tavern seemed to shake, and Ranma and Ryoga quickly gave him their full attention.

"Err, don't you think you could just get our tribute from the guy who runs the place?" Ranma asked, pointing at the bartender who'd served them. Ranma and Ryoga both looked over in his direction… only to see that the man was no longer there. "Uhhh…."

"Oh, we'll be gettin' a bit from him too, don't worry," The big man said with a nasty smile that showed off missing teeth. "Everyone's gotta pay up some time or another."

"Oh, this is great." Ryoga looked at Ranma. "See? This is exactly what I was talking about! Now we're gonna have to fight our way out of here!" To this, many of the thugs had a good laugh.

"Shut _up,_ you idiot." Ranma looked around the tavern, quickly cataloguing every possible escape point and counting the number of possible hostiles. After only a few seconds, he nodded and then turned to face the one who'd thrown them. "Listen, we're not looking for trouble, mister."

"Well that's a damn shame, 'cause trouble _shore_ 'nuff done found _you_, boys." One of the men said, picking up a nearby axe. "All right, lads! Let's show these fools what happens when you mess with the _Bloody Blades_!" The men all roared in agreement and Ranma sighed.

"Well, let's do this," He said, unsheathing his sword. Ryoga unstrapped his axe and sighed even more dramatically.

"This is all your fault, Saotome!"

Without a word, the nearest bandit leapt at Ryoga and swung his axe. The fanged teen blocked the attack with his own and kicked the man in the gut, knocking him off his feet. After that, all of the bandits started attacking.

Ranma ducked under another axe swing and with a quick flash of his own blade, the bandit who'd attacked him had a huge bleeding gash in his chest. As the man cried out in pain and surprise, another one leapt at him, this time with a sword held high above his head, which Ranma parried and countered by quickly stabbing the man in his sword arm, lodging his blade in between the two bones in the left forearm. As the sword user cried out, Ranma pulled his blade free and kicked him in the face, knocking him off of his feet. Another axe-user charged him with a scowl on his face, and Ranma leapt up over his opponent as he swung his axe sideways with all the grace of an ox.

The pig-tailed teen landed on the thug's back, held his sword up and stabbed down, straight into one of the man's lungs. Before his opponent could even react, he leapt off and straight towards two more bandits who were running towards him with his sword held back. Ranma flew between them both, swung his sword in a wide arc that cut right through their intestines, and landed behind them.

Ryoga snarled as he blocked yet another axe-wielding bandit with his own axe, and with his free hand, punched the man in straight in the face, breaking his nose.

"Saotome, you show-off!" He snapped, turning and swinging his axe behind him without even looking. An enemy who approached from behind had his stomach cut open and fell over screaming. Ryoga turned his attention back to the bandit whose nose he'd broken and slammed the side of his axe into the man's temple, knocking him over the bar. He picked up the man's dropped hand-axe and with great force, slung it towards another bandit who was standing there, watching him in surprise. The spinning axe cleanly sliced his head off, and Ryoga winced. "Oh well, he should have picked a better way to live."

The biggest, ugliest looking thug frowned as he watched the scene unravel before him. Two little boys were taking his men down left and right? What the hell was going on here?

"Ugh! I can't take this no more!" Everyone stopped when he shouted. Ranma blinked and kicked the latest bandit he'd skewered off of his blade, then stood looked at the man. "If ye want sumfink done, ye gotta do it yerself! Useless, the lot o' ye!"

"That's not exactly fair to your boys, you know," Ranma said, grinning. "You're kind of totally out-classed, here."

"Shut up, Ranma," Ryoga sighed. He turned to face the man who was the apparent leader. "Listen, we're sorry for maiming and," he gestured the now headless bandit, "Killing your friends, but you left us no choice. If you let us leave right now, no one else will get hurt. All right?"

The bandit's face reddened with anger.

"Oh, someone's gonna git hurt alright! Nobody crosses Gwyar and gets away wit it!" The big man picked up his axe and charged Ryoga with a scowl on his face. The fanged youth shook his head and sighed. He brought up his axe in time to block a swing from the other man, and the force behind his opponent's attack gave him pause. Gwyar noticed the slightly surprised look on his face and grinned. "Yeah, tha's right, boy. Ye don messed wit the wrong people! Gyah!" The man pushed Ryoga back, and swung his axe towards the boy once more. Ryoga dodged by ducking back and kicked the man in the knee.

Gwyar barely seemed to notice his attack and continued swinging his axe towards the younger man, driving him further and further back.

"Die!" Ranma stopped watching the fight unfolding between his companion and enemy boss in time to turn around and block the sword strike of another opponent with his own.

"Your type never seems to learn," The pig-tailed youth started, "Always seeing their friends get beaten with one hit, but thinking, 'I can do better than that! Watch me!'" He shook his head and blocked a number of swings from the man, barely moving his sword at all each time. Ranma grabbed a nearby mug of ale from a table with one free hand, drank what was left, and tossed the mug into the man's face. His opponent surprised, he took the opportunity to stab the man in the bladder. He pulled his sword free of the now screaming man's gut and knocked him off his feet by slamming the flat of his blade into the side of his head. Ranma stepped over him and looked around at the remaining bandits.

"You guys still wanna go? I can do this all night." For added effect, he yawned.

"Grr! You're not so great! You've just been getting lucky!" One of them shouted out angrily before running out of the tavern. Ranma blinked.

"Hum. Strange that you run away after saying something like that." He narrowed his eyes. 'Unless…'

Ryoga frowned and blocked yet another of the beserk bandit gang leader's strikes.

'If I can just get him once...' After dodging under a particularly wild swing, Ryoga swung his axe up and cut a straight line up the man's chest, leaving a deep wound that freely bled and oozed other liquids. Ryoga grinned as he looked up at Gwyar's face, but when he saw the grin on the other man's face, his own slipped. "What?"

"It'll take more than a _scratch_ to take Gwyar the Nasty down, you clown!" The man guffawed and held up his axe above his head as if to cut Ryoga in half. Before he could, though, there was a meaty thump from something hitting flesh and the man screamed out in pain, dropping his axe and grabbing his left shoulder with his right hand. Ryoga blinked and looked up; from his vantage point he could see a familiar dagger lodged in the man's back to the hilt.

"Damn it, Ranma! I didn't ask for your help!" The fanged teen snorted as he stood up and glared at the pigtailed teen.

"Sorry about this, but we've gotta go," Ranma said. To Gwyar or him, Ryoga wasn't sure, but it didn't matter.

"What happened?"

"They've gone to get reinforcements, and even though I said I could do this all night, I don't _feel_ like it," Ranma said as he roughly and messily pulled his dagger from the bandit leader's back. All manner of curses flew out of the big man's mouth and both teens started running. Ryoga stopped for a moment as something shiny caught his eye, and he stopped noticing all the golden coins, rubies, emeralds and all manner of jewels littering the tables and ground. The young man grinned and stashed as many coins and jewels as he could into his satchel before following Ranma out.

Once they were out of the tavern, they turned right and ran along a dirt path until they found some tall bushes. Both dived into the bushes and peered out at the tavern. A large group of thugs quickly ran into the tavern. After only a few seconds, they quickly ran back out and started looking around.

"Split up! Find those cowards and bring them back! We're gonna show them what happens when you try to fight the _Bloody Blades_!" One man shouted. There was a seemingly tangible bloodlust in the air emanating from the tavern and it surroundings.

"Let's go now, quickly," Ranma said, stepping out of the bush. "While they don't see us."

"Don't give me orders, Saotome," Ryoga snapped. He reluctantly followed his partner out and Ranma grabbed his hand, then started running, dragging him behind. "Hey! Let go of my hand you arse!"

"Hmph, fine," Ranma let go of the other teen's hand and kept running. "If you get lost in the dark, don't expect me to care! I'm not the one who gets lost in a room with one door and no windows!"

"I do not! Stop saying that!" Ryoga said, trying to follow his companion's voice.

"Yes you do!"

"No I don't!" The fanged youth blinked, a little uncertain despite his words; had Ranma actually sounded _further_ that time?

"Damn it! Yes you do! Where are you going right now?" Ryoga frowned when the other teen suddenly grabbed him by the hand again and started running. "I'm just going to have to get you leash or something, damn it." Ryoga growled but stayed silent as his friend led him towards their base.

--

In a large forest clearing, a teenage girl with a short crop of hair sat atop one of the high rotting walls of an old, derelict fortress. She dressed oddly for her sex – pale yellow cotton pants and shirt, with two spiky iron pauldrons and a bronze hammer strapped to her back.

"Hmph, they're sure taking their time. All we did was ask them to go buy vegetables and meat," The girl said with a frown. "Stupid Ranma! Always so unreliable…" She sighed and looked down at the ground. "But if Ryoga's there with him, I'm sure they'll be fine…" The sound of feet crunching on dirt and dead leaves met her ears and she looked down at the ground. "Oh! They're back!" The girl turned aroundand shouted out. "Hey, everyone! They're back!"

Ranma and Ryoga ran through the forest towards the fort with wild abandon, and stopped only when they reached archway. When the girl yelled out, Ranma sighed and looked up at her in annoyance.

"Stupid tomboy and her loud voice," he said. "That hurts even from down here!"

"Hey!" Ranma looked up at the 'tomboy' and blinked. "I heard that, you know!"

"I'm sure you did, you half-beast hybrid," He muttered.

"I'm not part beast, pervert!" The girl snapped back. She turned around and leapt off of the wall and ran inside the fort.

"Oh great, here she comes," Ranma sighed. "I don't know how many times I've had to put her in her place just this week."

"Shut up, Ranma. You're the one who's always antagonizing her! Hell, you antagonize everyone!"

"No I don't," Ranma snorted. "I mean, sure I uh, might… well, _tease_ you guys sometimes, but it's all in good spirit!"

"Hmph. Whatever," Ryoga walked inside just as the girl ran out and at Ranma, brandishing her hammer.

"Hi there, Akane," Ranma dodged a swing from her hammer. "You look brutish, as always."

"Damn it! Shut up! I do not look brutish!"

"Yes you do," Ranma said, sidestepping another swing. "You're way too muscular! Geez, I think yours are bigger than mine!"

"Grrr! _Shut up_!"

Inside the castle, Ryoga sniffed the air and frowned. 'Hmm. Something smells good…' He was walking down a hall when a feminine voice greeted him.

"Hello, Ryoga. I heard you two were back. Did you manage to get anything we asked for?" The voice had an amused lilt to it.

"Oh!" Ryoga turned and saw a young woman wearing a dark brown hooded cloak standing behind him. 'How long was she there?' He shook his head and remembered her question. "Um, no. We uh, ran into some kind of trouble. Bandits swarmed the whole town out of nowhere! Ranma and I tried to leave without starting anything, but they weren't having any of that, and we ended up having to kill a few of them to escape." He said, scratching his head. "Sorry." The girl giggled into a hand after his report.

"I see. Well, that's okay. Mousse was able to find some wild pigs in the area, and Nabiki discovered a patch of wild vegetables. We'll be fine." Ryoga blinked.

"What?" He frowned. "You mean, we did all that fighting for nothing?"

"I'm afraid so," She said.

"Oh…" The fanged teen's eyes glazed over. "I see…" The older girl giggled again and turned away.

"Dinner is almost ready. Are you two still hungry?" She asked.

"Hm? Oh, yeah, sure, I'll have some," He said.

"Good. Are those two playing outside again?"

"Uhh… I wouldn't call it playing," Ryoga said, scratching his head. "You want me to go get them?"

"When dinner is ready." She started walking away from him and he turned away. Ryoga turned around again to go back to the entrance and tell the two quarrelling outside about dinner, but he was stopped by another voice.

"There you are, Hibiki." He turned and saw another girl, though this one wore a red mantle over her blue shirt and pants instead of a full cloak. "Where's Saotome? Fighting with sis again?"

"Yeah," Ryoga nodded. "Those two can't stand each other." The girl with the mantle snickered at that.

"Are you so sure?" The fighter gave her a look at asked if she was serious. "Just saying."

"Of course. For years, all they've ever done is fight, fight, fight," He snorted. "That's all Saotome is good at, anyway."

"Heh. Well, whatever you say." She turned away. "I'll go see him then."

"Right. Later, Nabiki," Ryoga waved and walked away.

--

Much later that night, Akane sat atop the dirty, crumbling walls yet again. The girl looked her arms over and frowned.

"My arms aren't too muscular. What a jerk, making a girl worry over her image…" She looked down at her chest and the frown deepened. "But… but… he's right about these…" She sniffed. "Come on… why won't you grow? Like Nabiki's or Kasumi's? Is it because I'm too active? Am I still too young?" The teen sighed and wilted. "I'm already seventeen! They should be bigger than this!" When she looked up, some orange light in the distance caught her eye. The girl blinked and squinted, instantly recognizing the light of torches in the distance.

"Huh?" It was a large group of men, though she couldn't see them well enough from where she was to identify them. They were quickly covering the distance between them and the fort, though, which filled her with mild alarm. As they got closer, she could see that they were running, and all of them, though wearing only simple clothes, were armed with swords, axes, clubs, and various other instruments of destruction. Her eyes widened and she immediately put her fingers to her mouth and blew a long, drawn out whistle.

-

Inside the castle, Ranma's eyes shot open immediately at the sound of the whistle. He tossed his woolen blanket away, grabbed a nearby cup and emptied its near freezing contents on his face, which thoroughly awoke him. He shook his head, flinging the cold water everywhere at once, quickly grabbed his sword and dagger from the side of the hay he'd been sleeping on, strapped them on, and ran out into the hall.

He was quickly greeted by Ryoga, Akane, and another male youth with long hair and flowing white robes.

"Mousse, Ryoga, Akane," Ranma nodded. "Nabiki and Kasumi?" The youth with white robes nodded behind Ranma, who turned around.

"Hey there, Saotome," Nabiki waved. Beside her, Kasumi stood there with a serene smile on her face despite the late hour and hurried wake up call.

"Right, there you are," Ranma nodded and looked at Akane. "It was your watch, right? How many of them are there?"

"I couldn't get a head count, but it looked like maybe thirty or forty. There were a lot." Ranma nodded.

"Okay. We can handle that many easy." He looked at Ryoga. "You're with me and Akane. We're gonna sit at the front entrance and slaughter anyone who tries to sneak in. Mousse, Nabiki, Kasumi, I want you guys on top, handling everyone from a safe range,"

"Of course," Nabiki said with a roll of her eyes and a grin. "Do you think us stupid, Saotome?" Ranma blinked.

"That depends. Is your name Ryoga or Akane?"

"Ranma…" Two voices growled out in unison.

"You would do well to remember who will be watching your back, Saotome," The man in flowing white robes pointed out with a smirk.

"Aww, shut up, Mousse. Did I ask you?" Ranma grumbled under his breath and looked at Akane and Ryoga. "Right, you two, let's go. We'll try negotiating with them first, which will, of course fail, and lead to us killing them all." The two nodded and followed him down the hall, while the other three started walking up a set of old, worn and pot-marked stone stairs. As they neared the exit, Ranma and Ryoga noticed Akane muttering something under her breath.

"Hate bandits, hate bandits, hate bandits!"

"Akane, shut up," Ranma said, half annoyed and half amused. The girl growled at him in response.

By the time they made it to the archway, the correctly assumed bandit party was already upon them.

"There they are! Get 'em, lads!" Ranma and Ryoga frowned at the familiar voice as a line of angry thugs rushed to meet them.

"We don't even get to negotiate this time? But that's the fun part!" Ranma insisted as he quickly unsheathed his sword in time to block the swing of a club. He had to use both hands to brace the sword, so forceful was the other man's swing. Ryoga snorted and dodged a downwards vertical swing from one of the bandits, tripped him and slashed his side open.

"This _is_ the fun part, for me," He said, grinning at the next man that tried to kill him.

"Isn't it?" Akane agreed, slamming her hammer into a man's skull with all of her strength. The man's head caved in and he crumpled over. "But it's kind of gross."

Ranma shook his head.

"What the hell is you guys' problem with us, anyway?" He demanded, kicking his current opponent in the crotch. The man folded over easily, but Ranma didn't stop there, instead slashing his throat out. With so many of them trying to blitz him at once, he knew he couldn't afford them any second chances. Ranma leapt straight up in the air and three of them crashed where he'd been standing before. He landed on their heads and looked up at the fortress wall. "What are you guys waitin' on? Start shooting already!" He leapt straight up from the three men's heads, flipped in the air and dove towards one of them and stabbed his sword straight down the man's head.

Up above, Mousse snorted as he watched the unfolding carnage below. In his hands were a bow two quivers full of arrows with iron heads.

"Hmph, impatient as always, Saotome."

"Has to have someone hold his hand through it all," Nabiki snorted in agreement. The young brown haired woman pulled a musty dark-red tome from her mantle and flipped it open. "Let's see, there's three over there, two trying to sneak up on Hibiki, and one climbing a tree… Hmm, he's actually got a bow." She nodded and made her decision.

After a short chant, she folded all but her index and middle finger. The two fingers began glowing with a pale blue light, and she quickly got to work drawing a large system of runes in the air, going as far as to take a step back in order to use up more of the air around her. In two seconds, it was over, and the pale blue runes glowed brightly for a moment before turning into a small orb of flame that shot at the man in the tree, who was nocking an arrow in his bow.

He saw the bright orange light out of the corner of his eyes, but before he could even see it for what it was and scream, it collided with his chest and exploded, blasting him from the tree. The already dead man landed on his head and fell over.

"Damn!" Nabiki noticed the voice from earlier speak up again. "They got magic users up top! Fire away, men!" She narrowed her eyes as a few of the men carrying bows and arrows immediately looked up and noticed them. A streak of black energy shot into one of them before he could act, and he fell over, foaming at the mouth.

"Hmm, nice shot," Nabiki said, glancing at her elder sister. The other woman merely smiled and held up her hands in preparation for another spell. Unlike Arcane magic, which one required a number of runes and chants to cast, Dark Magic required the use of sporadic waving hand gestures. Both of them could be sped up drastically if one possessed magical tomes, such as Fire or Kasumi's Flux, which gave shape to the spell, but the incanting methods were different and the silly hand waving was not her style. Both sisters readied their spells again and fired them down at more bandits who were gathering their weapons while Mousse rained arrows on them.

"There, that's all of the bow users," Mousse said from beside Nabiki. She blinked and looked down at the progressing fight below. Indeed, all of those who had came equipped with bows and had not been just very badly roasted or had had their soul ripped out, had arrows lodged in critical parts of their bodies. Nabiki winced at one who'd caught an arrow through the eye.

"Wow, that had to have hurt a lot, for about a second or two." She grinned and looked around at the remaining bandits. "Now let's take out the garbage,"

Down below, Ranma grinned as enemies fell left and right. Soon, the number of bandits reduced to just half of what it had been originally. Ranma pulled his sword from the chest of the thug he'd just stabbed in the heart, and knocked the quickly dying man over with a light push. Instinctively, he turned and held up his sword to block a powerful strike.

A familiar nasty face was scowling at him. It was the same bandit leader from the tavern.

"Hello there. Gwyar, wasn't it?" Ranma asked. "I'm gonna have to take your head now, Gwyar. No hard feelings, okay?"

"My axe screams for your blood, little man!"

"Oh. So you're crazy, too?" Ranma continued with his casual tone of voice. The big man gave an unintelligible roar and pushed down on his axe hard enough to bring Ranma to his knees. "Damn, I guess they don't make you the leader for nothing, huh?" He grinned. "Should be fun!" Ranma gripped the sword with both hands and pushed back with a sudden burst of energy, knocking his foe away. He quickly drew the dagger from the holster in his leg and grinned. "Now I'm ready."

"Ye talk too much," Gwyar growled, charging at him again.

Ranma blocked the axe strike with the dagger, much to his foe's surprise, and slashed out with his sword, but the bigger man ducked sideways and he completely missed despite his speed. "You're kinda fast for a big guy, eh?" Ranma asked with a grin. His foe growled and tried to knee him in the gut, but Ranma jumped back and held his sword and dagger up for another attack. Gwyar charged him yet again, swinging his axe in a very wide arc with his right arm completely outstretched. Ranma ducked under the swing easily, but the left hook caught him by surprise and he was lifted off his feet and into the air. The giant roared and charged him again with his axe held above his head.

He swung it down with both arms and Ranma rolled to the side in time to dodge it. He sprung up to his feet and leapt up into the air with his sword out, leaving a shallow cut in his opponent's arm that was more due the fact that the big man had seen him moving and was able to get out of the way of a much more fatal wound. Ranma landed on his feet with his sword and dagger held out and Gwyar glared at him. The two circled around for a moment before leaping into action again. Ranma blocked the steel axe with both his sword and dagger, but the bigger man grinned and started pushing him back through the dirt.

"Why are you smiling?" Ranma asked as he suddenly drew his dagger from between the sword and axe and stabbed the man in the stomach. His foe shouted out in pain and jumped back, leaving Ranma to stand there with a smirk of his own. "That was a stupid move. What, did you think you'd push me up against the wall or something?" Ranma glanced back at the castle behind him.

Gwyar scowled at him and ripped a strange looking horn from the rope holding his pants up and blew on it. The sound echoed throughout the forest around them and Ranma frowned.

"Calling more of your friends?"

"We'll see the lot of ye dead yet!" The big man spat.

"No you won't," Akane said as she slammed her hammer into the side of his head from behind. The huge man flew sideways, cartwheeling completely twice from the force of her attack. Ranma frowned at her.

"I was playing with that one. Why'd you butt in?"

"The rest are dead or incapacitated," Ryoga said from behind Ranma. Ranma looked over his shoulder at the other teen. "We should leave now, before the rest get here. There's no point in risking our lives further, we knew we'd have to give up the base the moment Miss Akane woke us up." Ranma looked over the carnage and the bodies of their foes.

"We're ready," Nabiki called out. The three warriors turned to face the archway, where Nabiki, Kasumi, and Mousse were standing with sacks full of their meager belongings. Akane strapped her hammer to her back and hurriedly ran over to take two of the bags from her elder sisters. Ryoga and Ranma took their own from Mousse, who carried his own stuff where no one else could see. When everyone was comfortable, they looked at Ranma.

"All right," He started. "Lewellyn is south-east, but these louts are coming from that direction, right?" He asked, looking at Akane. "We'll have to go around them then, try to get out of the forest before we head for town." He quickly pulled a rolled up piece of parchment from inside his shirt, unrolled it and looked it over. "If we head north-east until we hit the edge of the forest, we can travel east until we hit a road. From there, follow the road south, then south-west around the forest, and we'll arrive in Lewellyn. Further south is where one of our contacts should be waiting for us with a few opportunities," He said, rolling the map up again and stuffing it back in his shirt. "Let's go."

--

Credit goes to JSB, for his many helpful ideas, and inverted helix, who spotted an error for me. Thanks guys!


	2. A Battle and a Beginning

--

Chapter 2:  
A Battle and a Beginning

--

Hours later, the six of them were walking with Ranma taking point and Ryoga bringing up the rear. They'd long since exited the forest and were now heading east for the road to Lowellyn. Dawn was on the rise, and the sky was a light blue color to show that the sun would rise soon. Nabiki quickened her pace until she was right beside him.

"Hey, Ranma," She started.

"Huh?" The pigtailed teen looked over at her and blinked. She was smiling at him.

"Say, you wouldn't happen to know why those guys were after us, would you?" She asked.

"Huh? What guys?" He asked. The confusion only lasted a moment. "Oh! Those guys. Nope, got no clue," He said, facing forward. The two of them came to the hilltop and saw the wide, oft-used dirt path that lead from the small town of Greid to the big city, Lowellyn down below. Ranma briefly brought out his map, unrolled it, and paused. "Right. This way," He said, pointing to his right. Nabiki rolled her eyes and started walking ahead of him.

"Well, duh. It's south, isn't it?"

Ranma blinked and scratched his head.

"Right. Of course." He followed after her down the hill. "Say, you wanted to talk to me about something else earlier?"

"Yes, that's right," She said, frowning. "This contact that we're meeting in Airell, how well does your father know him?"

"Know him?" Ranma blinked. "Hmm, the old man never said. Why?" The mage just shook her head and muttered.

"I'm hoping we don't run into any problems with it. Without Happosai or your dad around…"

"Hey! What am I then?"

Nabiki chuckled and shook her head.

"You're still just a little boy. Look, I'll handle the negotiations, okay?"

"But pop put me in charge," Ranma said with a frown.

"You don't really have a way with words, you know?" She winked at him patted his back. "Just leave it to me. Don't worry, I'll let you play commander everywhere else. Got it?" Ranma frowned at her and shook his arms.

"Hmph, what are you talking about? I'm the best when it comes to damn near everything."

Nabiki laughed again.

"Are you sure that's not your ego talking?"

"Hey, my _confidence_ is very well deserved," Ranma turned his nose up.

"I see a crushing defeat in your future," Nabiki said with a grin. Ranma snapped back down to face her and frowned.

"You'd better be joking. Come on, tell me you're joking." Nabiki just laughed and Ranma turned to face forward. "Hmph. What am I thinking? You can't see the future!"

--

Hours later, when the sun was high up in the sky, they arrived at the outer walls of Lowellyn. Two men stood guard outside the gate, but the archway doors were wide open. Inside, a variety of people could be seen wandering about the main street; peddlers selling their wares, other vagabonds, locals and even a homeless or two. But the main attraction about Lowellyn was its huge coliseum located directly in the middle of the city; The walls of the arena towered over the city's outer wall, making it visible to all who approached the city, and all main roads led straight to it. Lowellyn also had a number of blacksmiths and shops that made a killing from the amount of fighters who visited or lived there.

The two guards nodded at Ranma and his crew, and without any delays the six of them made their way into the city. Past the outer walls, a few modest homes and shops, and down the paved road without stopping until they reached the plaza before the coliseum, all the while ducking and dodging around the crowd. Despite the crowd everywhere else, the plaza was rather empty, save for a black smith showing off his wares on the side of the entrance and his customers. Different kinds of weapons and armors were laid out on display on a scarlet rug with various signs detailing them.

Ranma turned around and regarded his group.

"Okay, does anyone feel like stopping here for a few hours to rest?" They all nodded. "Right. Do whatever you need to and let's meet up back here in an hour. After that, we'll find an inn and get some sleep, then hit the road as soon as we're all ready."

"What are you going to be doing this time?" Ryoga demanded, crossing his arms.

"I'll be doing my own job. Don't worry about it."

"Saotome, your father didn't put you in a position of responsibility so you'd slack off," Nabiki gave the teen a half-lidded stare. "As odd as that is for him."

"Psh, not like he ever does anything but relax when he's off the job." The pig-tailed turned his nose up at her. "Don't worry about me; I've got something to do too."

"Hmph. Whatever," Ryoga growled, turned, and started walking away. "Come on, Mousse." Said teen immediately started following after the axe-wielder with a sort of practiced familiarity that spoke of a routine.

"You girls need any new tomes?" Ranma asked, looking at Nabiki and Kasumi.

"We'll be fine, although we should grab some vulneraries amongst other things," Nabiki said. She looked over at Kasumi, then Akane. "Come on girls, there's shopping to be done." The girls walked away and disappeared into the crowded streets, leaving Ranma alone.

Ranma turned and walked over to the weapons that were sitting on display and picked up a sword. The breeze kicked up and he rubbed his arms to warm himself.

'A Killing Edge?' He tilted his head and inspected it from different angles. Out of the corner of his eye, Ranma noticed one of the men who'd been browsing the wares suddenly walk up to the blacksmith.

"Hey, did you hear?"

"Huh? Hear what?"

"I heard a rumor in Airell. You remember how they said that the princess was ill?"

Ranma noticed how the blacksmith's interest was piqued.

"I heard that she actually ran away, or was kidnapped. They've been sending soldiers and knights to look for her all over the country and are keeping it quiet for some reason."

"And who told you that?" The blacksmith smirked. "What a load of shit. Nobody'd have the balls to snatch a noble, let alone a royal."

"I know, ain't it?" The other man grinned. "How cliché. A kidnapped princess, waiting for her knight on a white horse to ride up and save her." The two men shared a good laugh over that.

"Hey," Ranma started. Both men looked over at him. "How much is this?" He held the sword up higher for the blacksmith to see.

"Fifteen hundred."

"Hum." Ranma blinked. 'That's a little more than usual for one of these…' The teen made a nervous grin and started rubbing the back of his head. "Awww, don't you think you could knock off, say, two hundred?"

"No deal," The blacksmith snorted.

"Come on, yer killin' me here," Ranma tried to look as pathetic as he could.

"No. And I know for a fact you won't find that at some other place in this city, so stop trying."

"Hmph. Is that right…" Ranma looked down at the sword and narrowed his eyes.

"Don't even think about trying anything either." The blacksmith glared at him.

"Of course not." Ranma said, setting the blade back down. "It's not worth it." He turned and started walking towards the coliseum entrance, sparing a glance to the lion statues on each side of the huge archway. As he walked through the hallway, Ranma noted some of the carved designs in the walls. The dull roar of a crowd got louder and louder until Ranma came out of the hall.

Down in the arena, there were two ruffians fighting it out with axes. Ranma quickly lost interest in the petty fight and looked around the stands to see if anyone stood out. Almost immediately, he noticed three heavily cloaked figures standing to his side, apparently watching the battle.

"This is boring…" One of the cloaked figures whined and tugged on another's cloak. "C'mon, aren't you supposed to be looking for a wife, Herb?"

"Yeah, what happened to that? Why are we watching those pansies down there play around?" The other figure asked. Ranma smirked, feeling a bit sympathetic. "I want to see some breasts!"

The sympathy died straight away.

"Yeah! Me too!" The other figure said, tugging on the first one's cloak again.

"Be silent!" A masculine voice snapped, slapping the other cloaked figure away. "I was merely seeing what this society has to offer in terms of strength. I certainly hope this is not the most these people are capable of. It would shame my ancestors."

"Yeah, that's right," the whiny figure said. "Don't you think you've seen enough? Why torture ourselves any longer with this sad performance? You know what? I say we go look for some breasts. Maybe you'll even find your bride!"

"Hmph. I pity the fool who goes looking for breasts to find a bride. But there is some merit to what you say. Come, Lime, Mint. We shall make way for Elidor."

"What? But we just got here! What's the rush? Don't you want to peruse this little city first?"

"I have an appointment to keep," The obvious lead figure turned and started walking towards Ranma, quickly followed by his assistants. The pig-tailed fighter watched the lead figure from the corner of his eyes and was able to see the man's face. The young mercenary smirked when the red eyed, white and blue haired man glanced at him.

"But I thought you wanted to see some breasts!"

"Yeah, Herb! Come on, we just ran all the way here from…" Ranma wasn't able to hear the last bit of conversation as they all got further and further down the hallway.

"Hmmm, interesting people. Foreigners? Maybe…" Ranma looked down in the arena. One of the brutes was standing atop the other, waving at the crowd. He snorted and turned to leave. "I guess there's nothing to do but wait for the others."

-

A bit later, Ranma was greeted by the other members of his crew at the specified meeting place.

"What'd you guys get?" He asked.

"I got myself a hand-axe," Ryoga said. "And one for Miss Akane too." He tossed the weapon at the girl in question and she caught it.

"Oh, you shouldn't have," She gushed. "Thank you, Ryoga! I'm so glad we're friends! You're very nice, unlike some people I know," The warrior girl glared over at Ranma, who simply folded his arms behind his head and started to whistle. "Anyway, thanks again."

"S-sure, it was nothing," Ryoga said.

"Yeah, you used the money you stole from those bandits in Greid, didn't you?" Ranma asked with a grin. Ryoga glared at him, but he kept going. "Wish I'd thought to grab some of their stuff. They were parading it around like idiots."

"You got this with money you stole from bandits?" Akane asked, looking at Ryoga. The other teen looked down and started fumbling with his hands.

"W-well…"

"How sweet! Putting the money a bunch of thugs stole to good use…"

"How does it translate to good use if it's spent on _other_ thugs?" Ranma asked Mousse, scratching his head. Mousse ignored him. "Hmph, whatever."

"Everyone check your inventory, see if you need any vulneraries." Everyone proceeded to check their equipment.

"I'm fine," Ranma said.

"Good to go," Ryoga said.

"I have everything," Akane.

"All fine here," Mousse said.

"…"

Everyone looked at Kasumi.

"Oh, dear, I seem to be missing a Concoction," Kasumi said. "They don't sell those in these small towns, do they?"

"I don't think so, sis," Nabiki blinked. "Where did you get Concoctions in the first place?"

"The last time we were in the Juraian Empire," she said, smiling. "A nice little red haired girl gave me some for free. She called it an experimental sample."

Everyone blinked.

"And they're normal Concoctions, right? Nothing seem off about them?"

"That's right," Kasumi nodded. "Aside from that, I'm ready to go."

"Well, okay then," Ranma said with a shrug. "There's a tavern that doubles as an inn down that street…"

--

The sun was already setting when Ranma and his crew set out again. The dirt road was littered with weeds and all sorts of wildflowers and small animals. For some reason, the plants found it easier to grow along the edge of the trail, or so it looked. Ranma kicked the occasional stone about until it went out of his reach, but there were always more lying around just a few feet ahead. Ranma turned and looked over his shoulder. Behind, the rest of the group walked as leisurely as he did, all of them in their own little moods. Ryoga looked around every so often, but mostly stared at the ground, while Mousse seemed to be staring straight ahead. Nabiki walked beside her older sister, reading an unfamiliar tome which he assumed she bought in Lowellyn. Akane seemed to be thinking rather hard at something, and when she glanced up at him, she noticed that he was watching her.

"What! What are you looking at?" The girl blushed and Ranma rolled his eyes.

"I was just checking on you guys." Ranma said. "Three guys and two girls- everyone's accounted for." Akane's eyes widened at the obvious jab to her femininity and she growled.

"Are you trying to start a fight?" She started reaching for her hammer.

"Why, no. I was just commenting on the extra manliness you seem to be emitting today, fine sir."

"Ranmaaa…" Akane's growl grew even louder and Ranma smirked.

"Cut it out, you two." Nabiki started.

"What, so you can read?" Ranma snorted. "Yeah, right."

"No," Nabiki walked up to and pointed past Ranma. "That."

Ranma blinked and turned back around to see a group of men fighting in the distance. There were at least ten guys fighting, though two of them were wearing light plate armor and on horseback while the others were all obviously outlaws from their brutish way and poor dress. The two armored men were obviously being ganged up on, and they made daring attempts to strike at their foes while keeping their mounts from harm. The bandits all managed to keep from being impaled by a lance or trampled by a horse by getting out of the way, and neither side really looked like they were at an advantage despite the bandits' superior numbers.

"Hmm, interesting." Ranma turned his head and looked over his shoulder with a grin. "What say we go in on the side of those knightly looking guys and have some fun?"

-

"There's no end to this," One of the young men on horseback muttered, spinning his lance with one hand in preparation to attack again.

When an orb of flame suddenly shot into his field of sight and exploded on one of the brigands, he blinked and turned his head. 'Magic?' A group of six people were all making their way towards the battlefield. 'We're saved!' The young man smiled when the young man wearing a red shirt and black pants leapt at one of the two bandits he had been facing off with.

"Oy! Wut's goin on 'ere?" The bandit that been attacked started scratching his head. "Where da hell did youse mugs come from!?"

"No use talking to the dead," The young man blinked just as he saw a small axe suddenly lodge itself in the bandit's head. Blood and gore spurted out and the big man fell over on his side, dead. A man wearing a dark yellow shirt walked over, pulled the hand-axe from the man's head and carelessly dropped it. Blood immediately started pooling in the dirt, and the young horse rider watched, speechless. The man in the yellow shirt looked up at him.

"Look man, we're here to help, but you could at least make some effort."

"R-right," The young man said. "Thanks! Seriously, I thought we were finished!"

"You're welcome. Though, if Ranma wasn't so bored, the bastard'd probably charge you for this." Ryoga said, looking around for his next target. The young man simply blinked in response. They both turned their heads at a nearby explosion, and a charred body suddenly landed next to them on the ground before sliding a bit. "Damn, they're getting all the kills!" Ryoga spotted another bandit running towards Nabiki, who was still recovering from having cast her spell. "Oh, no you don't!" The young fighter reared back and hurled his axe at the bandit. The small, deadly object crossed the distance in two seconds and slammed into the bandit's head so hard that he was knocked off his feet. Ryoga grinned and started running towards the corpse. "Got another one!"

The young horse rider simply sat there and watched, completely amazed by the sudden turn of events, when his companion rode over to him.

"Daisuke, are you seeing this?" The other young man had shaggy light brown hair and red and plate mail, contrasting his own black hair and green armor. "It's gotta be a miracle!"

"I don't believe my eyes, Hiroshi," Daisuke said, shaking his head. "This has to be a hallucination or a dream of some sort. The chances…"

"Who cares about the chances? It's happening, right?" Hiroshi all but shouted. "This is great! Now we can save Lady Akari!"

"I don't know," Daisuke said. "According to what I heard, they're mercenaries, and this is just a freebie because they felt like it."

"Oh no, this ain't gonna be free," They both turned their heads and saw the young man with the pig-tail standing behind them.

"What? But, you can't just jump into a fight and then charge us like that!"

"Normally, I wouldn't, but everything about you guys just screams 'We have money! Take it from us!' From your champion bred horses to your expensive armor and saddles… And are those steel lances I spy?" He chuckled, and both horsemen looked nervous. "You're both big city knights, probably work for some noble. I'm guessing this Akari woman is the one, hmm?" When he finished, the man in red armor looked positively livid.

"Y-you!"

"Calm down, Hiroshi." Daisuke looked down at the young mercenary from his horse. "Listen, mister… If you help us save Lady Akari, we can pay you. Otherwise, you won't be getting a single coin from us."

"Hmm…" The pig-tailed teen crossed his arms and seemed to think about it. "Where is this 'Akari' person?" He asked.

"_Lady_ Akari to you," Hiroshi snapped. "And she's being held in a deserted fortress that has since been made a bandit stronghold."

"Right, well, how far is it?"

"It's about eighteen or so miles south," Daisuke said. "The bandits are expecting us to return with ransom money. Lady Akari and three other friends of ours are all being held captive there,"

"Right," Ranma nodded. "You're in luck. That's on the way to Airell," He said with a grin.

"We're in luck?" Hiroshi blinked. "You wouldn't be getting paid if you didn't help us save her, how does that put _us _in luck?"

"Even if you guys aren't carrying money, your weapons, armor, and horses are very valuable," Ranma reminded them with a smirk. "And your boss's life is gonna be saved." Daisuke sighed.

"Well, since we're gonna be working together, there shouldn't be a problem, right?"

"Hold on, we have to finalize a contract here," Ranma said. He turned and shouted at the girl wearing a red mantle. "Oy! Nabiki! C'mere!" The young woman started walking towards them.

"What's the deal?" She asked, closing her book when she finally got there.

"These guys were escorting some noble," Ranma said, glancing at the two knights, "But she and some of their friends were kidnapped by some ruffians and it's our job to make sure she comes out of it alive, without paying those criminals a single coin,"

"Right," The girl narrowed her eyes in focus for a moment, then looked up at the two knights. "How many of them? What's their stronghold like? Any sort of defenses in place? What kind of fighters do they have? Anything we should be warned about?"

"Uh…" Daisuke blinked a few times and glanced over at Hiroshi. "We weren't able to get a good, ah, look at all that. They're beside a river… the fortress is two stories high, standard affair…um…"

"Well, I'm sure you'll be happy to hear that there's a variable rate starting at eight thousand just for the initial job," she said.

"Whatever it takes, we'll pay," Daisuke said. "Money's not a problem with Lady Akari."

"Deal," Nabiki said with a grin. "Though I doubt your boss would appreciate you offering to empty her coffers, even if for her life. Rich types tend to be crazy that way." The man in green armor frowned.

"Hmm...We need to leave immediately."

"Yes, of course. And you realize that if you try to cheat us, the ones you'll have to pay ransom to is us." The mage gave them a cheery smile and turned away.

"Hmph, whatever you say," Daisuke snorted. Nabiki and Ranma both glanced at each other. "We'll be leading the way then."

"We can keep up with a couple horses," Ranma said with a grin. Daisuke and Hiroshi blinked at that "You'll be taking the two girls then?"

"Whatever speeds it up," The black haired man said with a nod, looking the fighters of Ranma's group over. "I mean no offense, but I should say, the one with the bright yellow clothes looks a tad feminine. Are you sure he's up to the task?"

"Does he?" Ranma asked, grinning. "I suppose he does."

"That's because she's my little sister," Nabiki said with a grin and a roll of her eyes. Daisuke's eyes widened in surprise and he blushed.

"Um… sorry. It's just that, ah, from this distance…"

"None taken," Nabiki said, waving it off. She grabbed Ranma's arm and started walking, giving the two knights a glance. "Could you two give us a moment?"

Ranma allowed himself to be dragged away. Once they were definitely out of the knight's hearing range, Nabiki smiled at him and he blinked.

"Something seems off here," She said. Ranma smiled back and nodded.

"Really? What do you mean?"

"He didn't seem too worried when we threatened to hold their charge hostage," She kept smiling and started pointing at the man in green armor.

"There's no way he's dumb enough to think that he and his friend could beat us if it came to it," Ranma said, looking over at the man in green armor, then turned back to Nabiki with an even bigger grin than hers. "Tell everyone to keep an eye out. They're either hiding something from us or retarded."

A few feet away, Daisuke and Hiroshi stared at the two.

"Wonder what they're talking about? It seems to have them really happy," Hiroshi muttered.

"They're probably planning to try and rip us off," Daisuke sighed.

Ranma and Nabiki both nodded again and parted ways, Ranma walking towards the knights with the big grin still plastered on his face. When he got there, he looked up at the two and rubbed his hands together.

"Well then, I guess we're all set!" He said in a particularly cheery tone. The two knights frowned at him, but neither said a thing. "You say it's twenty miles, yes?"

"That's correct, though if you all rode on horseback at full speed, we could arrive in thirty minutes. Unfortunately…"

"That's no problem. My boys can keep up with a couple of horses." Both knights blinked at his words, unsure of whether or not they'd heard him right. "The two girls, on the other hand…"

"The mage and the shaman?" Daisuke asked, tilting his head. "Wait. Do you seriously intend to keep up with our mounts at full speed, for at least six leagues, maybe more?"

"That'll be a light work-out for this crew," Ranma said with a nod. "One or two of them might need a breather, but after that, we'll be good to go."

Both Daisuke and Hiroshi looked at each other and blinked.

--

"I don't believe this," Daisuke muttered. Beside his horse, Ranma and Mousse were keeping pace despite the intense speed of his mount, and neither looked too winded. Actually, Ranma didn't look winded at all. The pig-tailed teen was grinning at something or another, and he found himself re-evaluating the group. 'These guys don't seem like people to take lightly. Surprise was not the only factor when they assisted us before.' He turned and glanced at the other two on the team. The yellow clad girl, who was now much more obviously so that he was clo ser, and the roguish axe wielder trailed behind Hiroshi, who led the group.

All of the group's fighters were deceptively lean. Daisuke had never once even considered that a man, let alone a woman, could ever reach the speeds that they were going.

"How are we doing?" Daisuke blinked and looked to his side. Ranma was the one who'd shouted, if his looking in the knight's direction was any indication.

"We're almost there!"

"Right!" Ranma nodded and faced forward.

"When we get to the river, stop!" Daisuke shouted out.

Before long, the river in question came up and they all slowed down to a stop. Ranma tilted his head and looked around. There was a bridge that went over the river, which itself wasn't flowing too fast or dangerously.

"All right, what's up?" Ranma asked, turning to look at Daisuke.

"The enemy base is west of our position," Hiroshi said, turning his horse to his right. "Two leagues down this river and they're in plain sight."

"Okay. Does either of you have anything resembling a plan?" Nabiki asked, looking from one knight to the other.

"I was able to remember a bit of the layout as we made our way here," Daisuke said, nodding. "Though we did not go inside, I surmise that the fortress has a few prison cells, where they would be keeping our friends until we supposedly got back with the ransom money, at which point they'd have killed us raped our friends anyway, then either kill or hold onto them… Anyway, I figure someone, namely Hiroshi and I, can pull attention away from the cells by attacking from the front, while you fine people go in from the rear and free the prisoners."

"Hmm," Ranma tilted his head and crossed his arms. "Sounds good." He looked over at Ryoga and Akane. "You two go with these guys, help them put on a good show." The two axe-fighters nodded. "The rest are with me. We'll go in from the rear, rescue the prisoners, and escort them to safety."

"What then?" Akane asked. "How will we know when you guys are ready to go?"

"Nabiki will fire a spell into the sky when we get out," Ranma said. "Or we can rout the enemy. Either way works," He said with a shrug.

"Right, well, if that's all," Nabiki said, climbing down from the horse. "Ranma, before we do this, a word," She started walking away and Ranma followed after her. When they were out of everyone's hearing range, she looked at him sharply and spoke up. "Why are you sending those two with the guys we don't know? There are quite a few unknowns in this situation. It could be a trap of some sort," She said.

"I doubt it," Ranma said, rolling his eyes. "If it is, then those two put on one hell of an act letting their friends get slaughtered… and waiting about for some random adventurers to show up so they could lure them to their stronghold and kill them, take their money and women? These guys must be geniuses. I wonder how often it happens across the country."

"It's not impossible," Nabiki snapped. "I'm just being careful here."

"Hmm? Ahhh. I see. You're worried about baby sister," Ranma grinned and Nabiki glared at him. "Don't worry. She can handle herself. Pops, Ryoga and I can beat her easy, sure, but she's still the biggest brute in the world aside," He said, patting her shoulders.

"What if she gets hurt? Will you do then?"

"Then I'll acknowledge that I'm unfit to be commander, let you take over, and take care of your crippled sister for the rest of her sad, short crippled life. Happy?"

"Don't make light of this, Saotome."

"You need to relax," Ranma said, giving her an indifferent look. "The one underestimating your sister here is you, not me. Have some faith. Now, don't we have a job to do?"

"Hmph. This isn't over, Saotome," The mage said, walking around him back to the group.

"Whatever," Ranma shrugged while shaking his head, then followed after her.

"Are you done?" Daisuke asked, looking the two over. When he didn't get a response, he blinked and continued. "There's one more thing. The fort is right on the riverbank, so to attack the rear without being seen, you will have to ford the river from the other side."

"Hmm, that doesn't sound so bad," Ranma said with a nod. "Well, let's go." Kasumi dismounted Hiroshi's own horse and Ryoga and Akane both got on in the mage sister's places. A moment later, the two knights took off with their passengers and the remaining four hurried to cross the bridge.

--

As they rode up on the fortress, Ryoga tapped Daisuke on the shoulder.

"What?"

"What are we gonna do when we show up?" He asked. "You have any plans for that?"

"It's simple," Hiroshi called back to him. "We attack like the overzealous, self-centered and naïve knights we are! That'll give them a laugh at first, and by the time they get serious, we'll have taken out a few of their number!"

"Remember to spout nonsensical phrases about their lack of honor and dignity, in as archaic a language as possible." Daisuke added.

"Sounds fun." Ryoga said.

Ten minutes later, the castle came into view. Even though it was night time, the place was brightly illuminated by the lit torches that hung from the walls. As they got closer, they were able recognize the shapes of big, muscular men who were just generally sitting about the place. The bandits all stood up as the knights rode in and one of them started yelling.

"Oi! Ya piles ah rust 'ave ahready retoined wit da goild! Dat was pretty damn fast!" The gathered brigands all shared a laugh at his joke and Daisuke growled as loud as he could.

"Hark! Thou thinkest thou can order mine righteous self like some waif? Thine foolishness shall be thine undoing! Repent, sinners, for the wrath of the gods is upon ye!"

Ryoga and Akane stared at Hiroshi in total surprise.

"Indeed! Miscreants, thine end as a pox upon this world is near! May the gods have mercy on this misbegotten swine that darest even toucheth, let alone hold Lady Akari hostage! To death with ye!"

Ryoga and Akane stared at each other, when all of a sudden, Daisuke elbowed Ryoga. The bandits all looked at each other in confusion and started muttering.

"Wut's _that_ supposed to mean, like?"

"Ah've got nay ah-dea, mate,"

"Them's is spoilin' fer a fight, thinkin' some god's gonna carry em' through." The bandits all started laughing at that. The bandit who'd figured it out walked up to Daisuke with a nasty smirk. "So youse want to play wit us fer a bit, eh?"

"Have at thee, cur!" Daisuke said, slowly and clumsily spinning his lance around, and then thrusting it with all the accuracy of a blind man. The bandit simply stared at the lance, which was at least two feet away, and started laughing. "Ho! I see thou art more challenging an opponent than I first thought! But this will not last long!" Daisuke elbowed Ryoga again, and the teen blinked before realizing something was up. "Have at thee!" Daisuke started making more clumsy attempts to stab his opponent with the apparently overly heavy lance, and Ryoga glanced at Akane, who met his glance with her own, and nodded. The bandits were all laughing and Ryoga took that moment to surreptitiously unstrap his hand-axe and get into a ready position, then tapped the base of Daisuke's spine.

"Impossible! Thine reflexes are truly astounding! But no matter! For I shall have your head!" The moment he said this, Daisuke pulled his lance back, and like an arrow it shot forth, going straight into the man's open mouth and through the back of his head. Ryoga immediately leapt off of the horse and flung his hand-axe at one of the bandits and unstrapped his iron axe. In the second it took for his hand-axe to cross the distance and make the kill by wedging itself into the man's skull, Ryoga had already sliced another's neck in half and was on his way for another, while Akane had leapt off and straight into one of them, slung her own hand-axe into the crowd of bandits and unstrapped her hammer. The axe chopped off one man's arm just as Hiroshi swung his lance at another bandit that was just barely within reach and managed to graze his chest with the point, eliciting a pained scream while Daisuke pulled his own lance free.

--

Ranma waded through the water and looked up at the walls of the fortress. Nabiki and Kasumi rode on his and Mousse's backs in order to stay dry.

"It's too damn dark," He muttered. "They don't have any torches lit back here, and it's the night after the new moon. Mousse, a torch,"

"Ah…" There was the sound of rummaging around through a bunch of different things before Mousse finally produced something and handed it over to Ranma, who held it up for Nabiki. Her fingers lit up and she drew small runes in the air that became fire on the torch.

Not a moment later, there were screams and shouts coming from around the building.

"I believe that's our cue," Ranma said as he started to move in.

"Wait. Give them time to spread the message to the inside of the castle." Nabiki said. "We wait five minutes."

"Hey, I'm the leader here," Ranma snapped. Nabiki rolled her eyes.

"And what would you have us do, oh great and terrible leader?"

"I say we wait five minutes so that people actually realize they're being attacked. You know, let them spread the panic, have the idiots leave the prisoners to their own devices."

"Right, of course. A masterful plan if I do say so myself," Nabiki said with another roll of her eyes. Kasumi giggled.

"Really, I must agree. You've outdone yourself once again, Saotome," Mousse added.

"Aww, shucks. You guys don't have to go that far. My natural talents in tactical genius just happen to be far superior to yours, so naturally, you're blown away."

"Right, well, Mr. Tactician," Nabiki started, "How do you plan on going in? There's not a door in sight."

"Hmm, you're right. An oversight I had not anticipated," Ranma said in his best impression of a scholar. "However, that is of no consequence. We shall blast our way in!"

"Blast in? Through the walls?" Nabiki demanded.

"Precisely."

"Loads of subtlety there, Saotome. What's the point of having them cause a distraction if we don't just slip in unnoticed?" The mage rapped his head lightly once.

"Well, I don't hear you coming up with any bright ideas, little miss-know-it-all."

"There's gotta be a way in somewhere," Nabiki said. She kicked her heels. "Go forth, mighty steed, that we may explore these unknown areas!"

"Aww, shaddap," Ranma turned and did as she said, wading through the water along the wall. Mousse quickly followed after him and they continued walking, Ranma holding the torch ahead so that they could see. They eventually came around the corner of the building, where there was a large hole in the wall. Bricks lie on the ground right under where they'd fallen, leaving a fairly human sized hole for them. "Well look at that. Looks like someone's gone and done our work for us!" Ranma stepped inside, and he was followed by Mousse. Nabiki jumped off of his back and looked around.

They were in a long hallway that had a couple of wooden doors and a circular stairwell at the other end. There were a few lit torches along the walls and even some carpet on the walls and floors, and the hallway connected to atleast two others along the way to the stairwell, which lead down.

"This place doesn't look half bad for a place that's supposedly run by bandits," She said, frowning.

"Save for this gigantic hole in the wall, yeah," Ranma agreed. "There's still tapestries and junk hangin' around…"

"The hole looks like it was made recently," Mousse said, picking up a brick.

"Right, well, let's find the dungeon, save those chicks, and get the hell out," Ranma said. "Whatever made this hole can wait." The young rogue unsheathed his sword and made his way further down the hall with the two mages between him and Mousse, who had pulled a big lance from gods knew where and started watching the rear. 'Though I gotta admit, this is kinda convenient. Why would someone else blast a hole like that, and why here?' He shook his head and peered around the corner. Predictably, there was no one there.

"I'm sure that right there leads to the dungeon," Nabiki said, pointing at the stairwell.

"Probably," Ranma agreed. "Let's go check it out." They quickly closed the distance between them and the stairs and Ranma started going down at a slow, cautious pace. He reached the end of the winding stairs and spotted a metal door on his right. The door opened in and he peeked in.

Inside was the dungeon, as Nabiki had guessed. There were no bandits in sight, and inside one of the three prison cells were two girls. One of them wore a green jerkin with white tights with sandals, while the other was dressed in the stately robes of a cleric. After checking for potential enemies, Ranma slammed the door open an/d the two girls jerked up, screaming.

"W-what was that for, you jerk!?" The one in the jerkin demanded. Ranma blinked and she continued. "I-if you think you can j-just, have your way with us too, you got another thing coming!" Ranma snorted at the girl's false bluster and walked over to the cell door.

"Right. Is either one of you named Akari?" He asked. The girls both blinked and looked at him in confusion. "I'm with a group that was hired by two guys named Daisuke and Hiroshi. I'm here to save her."

"L-lady Akari? You're going to save her all by yourself?" The girl had a confused look on her face. "Wait. How did you get in here?"

"There was a big hole in the wall," Ranma shrugged. The girls looked at each other in understanding.

"Miss Ninomiya must have made a run for it!" the cleric said. "I thought… I thought they were going to, to, take her purity away…"

"Huh?" Ranma asked, looking confused. "Well, since you seem to be familiar with Akari, I'm supposed to let you out too." The pigtailed teen reached into a hidden pocket on the inside of his shirt and pulled out a lockpick. The two girls watched in silence as he opened their cell door and turned around. "Can either of you fight?"

"I can use a bow," The girl in the jerkin said, standing up to rush out of the cell, followed by the cleric.

"Good. You?" He asked, looking at the girl in the priestly robes.

"I could heal if I had a staff," She said.

"Great, great. Come on, my friends are waiting," He said, running for the door. "What're your names?"

"My name is Yuka," the cleric said, following after him with the other one right behind her.

"I'm Sayuri, pleased to meet you,"

"I'm Ranma," Ranma said as he started climbing the stairs. When he got up, he found Nabiki and the others all looking around. Nabiki looked at him and opened her mouth to speak, but stopped when the two girls appeared on the stairwell behind him. She blinked.

"Who're they?"

"They're Akari's friends," Ranma said. "Yuka and Sayuri," He said, gesturing each girl as he said her name.

"Hello," Yuka said.

"Yeah, that's nice. Either of you know where Akari is?"

"I'm sorry," the archer said, and both of them looked ashamed.

"Well, you can help us find her," Ranma said, facing Mousse. "A bow and a staff, please." Mousse nodded and produced both an iron bow, quiver full of arrows, and a staff with a red orb at the end and handed them to the obvious choices.

"Hey! What the hell is this!?" All six of them turned their heads to the big hole on the wall on the other side. A bandit holding a torch suddenly ran into the hole and spotted them. "What! They're escaping!" He leaned out of the hole and shouted. "Jail Break! Jail Break!"

An arrow appeared in his chest, and he snapped his head back to look at it and the blood that started dribbling down his shirt. He grabbed the arrow with his free hand, but stopped moving and fell over.

"Good shot," Ranma said. "Let's go!" They all ran and turned around the corner into another hallway just in time for the overweight or brutish men that climbed into the hole to see them.

--

Ryoga blocked a lethal strike from a sword with his axe and punched his foe in the face. The other man doubled back and the fanged warrior slammed his axe into the man's chest, cutting through bone and organs like water. The man screamed and fell as he quickly died. Ryoga wiped some of the blood off of his face and turned to face another foe.

"I give! I give!" The pot-bellied man dropped his axe and turned to run, but Ryoga grabbed him by the shirt and held him in place. "Wahh! Please don't kill me! I've got kids!"

"You set a sorry example," Ryoga said, frowning. "Anyway, I don't care, really. Go on," He released the man, who ran away screaming, then looked around at the carnage they had caused. "Is that all of them?"

"Looks like it." Akane said, joining him.

"Why aren't they sending more out here?" The fanged boy started scratching his head and Daisuke rode his horse over to him.

"I'm not sure, but if it's clear, we should go inside. We have to find Miss Akari."

"Right," Ryoga nodded and kicked open the palatial doors in the archway. He ran in, followed by the other three, Daisuke and Hiroshi both still on their horses, and stopped. The interior of the castle looked totally different from the outside. It was walls and floor decorated and torches lit, giving the whole place some decent lighting. Ryoga blinked and looked around. "Wait a minute. This isn't a rundown bandit stronghold. What's going on here?"

"Hmm," Daisuke looked around. There was a sudden crashing noise from far away and they all looked down the hall it had come from.

"There's something going on," Ryoga said. "Let's go, maybe Ranma's over there with the prisoners." The four of them started down the hall, both knights still on their horses, and kept going until they reached a corner. The moment they turned, they saw the source of the commotion.

Right beneath a staircase, there was a woman with long hair wearing a blue robe and cape holding a green tome standing before a group of men in black armor. The armored men all wielded lances, and the armor varied from heavy to light.

"Kill her, damn it! Can you not kill a single woman!" Three of the soldiers leapt towards the woman, who narrowed her eyes and held up a hand. A pale blue translucent set of runes appeared in the air and she took three steps back. In a second, the runes all vanished and the three attackers were bombarded with boulder-sized ice crystals from all directions. Daisuke and Hiroshi both immediately started charging towards the remaining soldiers with their lances up, and they managed to turn around in time to be impaled and lifted into the air, then dropped. The last soldier in black armor growled and ran up the stairs. "Damn it!"

Ryoga and Akane blinked and looked at each other.

"Miss Ninomiya! Are you alright?" Hiroshi asked.

"Yes, I'm fine, boys. Thank you." The mage woman looked over at Ryoga and Akane. "Who are they?"

"They're mercenaries we ran into. They're here to help save Akari," Daisuke said. Ninomiya narrowed her eyes at him and he blinked. "Uh, I mean, Lady Akari!"

"Right," She nodded and looked at Ryoga and Akane. "Where're the rest of you? You can't be the only ones, correct?"

"They went in through the back," Akane said. "We're supposed to be causing a diversion while they free the prisoners." The woman nodded.

"You have new orders now," She said. "I need you all to help me kill every last one of the soldiers in this fortress."

"M-Miss Ninomiya?" Hiroshi asked. "Whatever for? Our objective is to find Lady Akari and the others, and escape!"

"Not anymore," Ninomiya said with a shake of her head. "These people are not simple bandits."

"I could see that," Ryoga said, holding his axe over his shoulder. "What are we dealing with here?"

"I wish I knew," the woman said with a shake of her head. "However, I do know that they are working for one of the other countries, who seems to want to start a war with Zaira. What they could hope to gain from this, I don't know." She ran over towards the staircase and started running up. "Come, we have to exterminate them!"

"You're paying extra for this," Ryoga said, looking at Daisuke.

"She's the one with the money, go tell her that," The knight snapped. Ryoga blinked and recalled the spell she'd used before replying.

"I'll let Ranma tell her," He said as he started up the stairs. "Come on, Akane, let's bash some heads in!"

"That's what we've been doing," The girl said as she followed after him. Daisuke and Hiroshi looked at their horses, then at the stairs.

"…"

--

Ranma twisted around a stab that would have pierced his neck and slashed the man's neck in a blur, nearly lopping the man's head off. He kicked the dying sword user into another man, then stabbed the second one through the first one and jumped out of the way of an arrow. He turned his head and growled; when had the enemy archer appeared? A quick glance around showed that no one else was even aware of the archer that had entered the hall; they were all busy with their own various enemies. Ranma growled and gripped his sword better in preparation.

"Having to get serious in here, that really bugs me," He said as he suddenly shot over towards the archer in a blur. Before the Archer even realized he was under attack, Ranma severed both his arms. The man stood there in shock and confusion as his arms fell off and the young man he'd just shot at seemingly appeared before him. Ranma leapt straight up with all his might, dragging his sword in a straight line up the middle of the archer and back-flipped in the air, landing perfectly. The man fell into two parts and his blood and internal organs splashed about, and Ranma turned over to look at the other fights.

Mousse Threw his lance like a javelin, pierced a swordsman through the heart and pinned him to a wall, then pulled on the chain attached to the lance and recalled it. He span around in time to hold up the lance and block an overhead axe strike, and kicked the axe-fighter in the crotch. The man drew back, and Mouse slammed the blunt edge of his lance into the man's cranium, knocking him off of his feet, and slammed the point of his lance into the man's temple. Mousse bent over, picked up the axe, made it disappear into his robes, then approached the sword user he'd taken out earlier to do the same.

Ranma turned to see Nabiki dodging a frantic axe-wielder's attacks while Yuka looked on, worried. Kasumi waved her hands around until a ball of darkness appeared, then flew over and envelope the man's entire body. He started screaming almost immediately and fell over onto the ground. When the shadows receded from his body, his eyes had gone bloodshot and he was foaming at the mouth.

"Something's wrong," Nabiki said. "These guys aren't bandits. They've had formal training."

"Maybe they're deserters." Ranma shook his head. He was having trouble believing that himself.

"I've found some more stairs," Sayuri called out as she ran around a corner and into the hallway.

"All right, let's go," Ranma said. "Lead the way." Sayuri nodded and turned around, going back the way she'd came, and the others all followed her. They eventually came into a hall where there were a set of stairs, and immediately ran up the stairs.

When they got to the top, Ranma was surprised to see that the entire second floor of the castle was one big room. There were two stair-cases, one on their side of the room and another just across from them. Way on the other side of the room, there was a group of men standing around something, and they were all in the process of turning to see who had just made all the noise, running up there all of a sudden. Some of the men wore black armor, and wielded lances while others wore regular clothes with lighter armor, or even a mantle.

"Who the hell are you people?" One of the soldiers demanded.

"Ah, this is awkward," Ranma said, glancing at Nabiki, who was glaring at him. "You guys wouldn't happen to be bandits, would you?"

Before anyone could answer, another man in black armor ran up the stairs opposite of the ones Ranma's group had come up.

"It's the Sage Ninomiya! She's escaped, and those knights have returned with some strange brigands, sir!" The man said. Ranma noticed Nabiki frown out of the corner of his eyes, but didn't do anything. "They're coming here right now!" He ran over to join the crowd of soldiers.

"What! You fools! I told you to kill her while she was imprisoned! Can you not do a simple job?" A thin man wearing a hooded cloak yelled angrily and came from inside the crowd of soldiers. He was roughly dragging a girl dressed in exotic clothes about by the arm. The girl smirked at him.

"Ha! Your plan is falling apart!"

"Shut up!" The cloaked figure said, smacking the girl and knocking her onto her feet. "I'll kill you, regardless of how much they offer to pay for you alive!"

"Miss Akari!" Sayuri and Yuka both screamed. Ranma glanced at them and then at the exotic girl.

Suddenly, a woman wearing blue robes complete with a cape ran up the stairs opposite Ranma's group, and stopped, pointing at the cloaked man.

"You there! Unhand that girl!" Yuka, Sayuri, and Akari all looked over at her at once.

"Miss Ninomiya!"

Ryoga and Akane suddenly came up behind her on the stairs.

"Damn it! You people are getting on my nerves!" The cloaked figure growled and tossed Akari behind him. "Kill them all! Leave not a single soul standing, or I'll rip your souls apart!" The man snapped. The soldiers all scrambled into action and started moving across the huge room.

Ryoga and Akane ran over to join Ranma.

"Hey, any idea what's going on here?" The fanged warrior asked.

"I was going to ask you that, actually," Ranma eyed all of the enemy soldiers, then looked at everyone on their side. "I don't think we have time for it though. They kinda want us dead."

"This is going to cost way more than eight thousand," Nabiki muttered.

"This ain't nothin' we can't handle, just stay in the fight and we'll be fine."

As the soldiers neared them, Ranma started running towards them with a smirk. Almost at once, everyone else began moving. Ryoga, Mousse and Akane quickly followed after him, readying their own melee weapons. Nabiki started drawing runes in the air and Sayuri nocked an arrow.

The woman wearing blue beat them to the punch. A hand went up, in a blur, runes so large and complex that they formed a large wall appeared before her. After a second, the runes all vanished, and ice boulders bombarded into the majority of the soldiers from all sides, followed by a cyclone that ripped into them and the ceiling before blasting them about the room.

Everyone looked on at the display in shock.

"Rexcalibur!?" Nabiki winced. "Isn't that a bit of overkill?"

The enemy's ranks were cut down to ten, and all of them were all looking at the woman in blue with more than a bit of fear.

"Fools! Fine, you idiots get rid of the garbage while I take care of that woman!" The man in the cloak on the far side of the room grabbed the girl in exotic clothes and waved his hands about. A group of bricks suddenly blew out and he jumped out, dragging a screaming girl out behind him.

"Where do you think you're going with her!" Ninomiya yelled out as she ran across the room after him. The soldiers all gave her a wide berth and she leapt out of the hole after the cloaked man.

Ranma blinked a few times, shrugged, and ran towards the nearest soldier, startling him. He stabbed the man in the stomach through a weak spot on the armor and dragged his sword out the side, opening him up. All at once, everyone else reacted and the room became a chaotic swirl of action. Ranma brought his sword up in time to redirect the quick thrust of a lance.

Akane threw her handaxe at a soldier wearing heavy armor, but the weapon glanced off the man's thick chest plate. She immediately leapt towards the man in heavy armor and started swinging away with her hammer. The man blocked a swing with his lance, but she pulled back and increased her efforts. The soldier managed to dodge a few times, but his heavy, constricting armor slowed him down considerably and she finally scored a hit, slamming her hammer into his cranium and knocking him off of his feet.

Mousse jumped at a man and thrust his lance at him, but his initial attack was dodged. Mousse ducked under the man's lance as it was swung like a pole-arm. An arrow suddenly lodged itself in the man's neck and both combatants looked surprised at the development. The soldier gripped his neck in wide-eyed fear and noted that yes, a major artery was pierced, and yes, he was going to bleed to death. Mousse turned to see another soldier running after a retreating Sayuri and quickly leapt at the man and skewered him on his lance, then swung it to the side, flinging his enemy off and into another, and a fireball slammed into both of them, igniting them almost instantly.

When those two began screaming, there was another commotion at the stairs, and Ranma turned to see both Daisuke and Hiroshi came up the stairs… still atop their horses.

"Chaaarge!" both screamed when they reached the top. Ranma and a few others watched the two cavaliers spur their horses into a full speed charge straight at some of the soldiers. Only survival instinct kept the surprised men from being run over or skewered on a lance. They jumped out of the way of the stampeding horses and both knights slowed to a stop before turning around.

"The hell were they thinking?" Ranma stared at the spectacle. When the five remaining soldiers' shadows all suddenly converged and grew in size, he blinked. Not just him, either; the whole room seemed to notice the sudden increase in darkness. Ranma turned to look at Kasumi, and noticed the woman was holding her arms out towards the group. The men all seemed stuck, and Ranma noticed the darkness creeping up their bodies. Silence gripped the great hall when the two burning lumps of flesh' wails died out, aside from the unnaturally lit flames that licked away at their bodies.

"Um… are they dead?" Ranma asked. Kasumi looked over at him and her arms fell back to her sides harmlessly. The men all crumpled over.

"They wish they were."

The way she always said that kind of stuff with a pleasant smile on her face sent chills down his spine. If there was one thing he knew one thing for sure about the eldest Tendo sister, it was that pissing her off was probably not a good idea.

"I've been wanting to use that spell for a while, but it has such a low success rating." She smiled over at Daisuke and Hiroshi. "Thank you for surprising them long enough for it to take hold."

"Uh… right," Hiroshi blinked, then looked around and was surprised to notice Yuka and Sayuri. "Oh! Yuka! Sayuri!" He looked around again. "Where's Miss Ninomiya? And Lady Akari! Is she not here?!"

"Oh, right, those two," Ranma said.

"Ahhh! Lady Akari!" Yuka and Sayuri both ran over to the hole in the wall and most everyone moved to follow them. Outside in the distance, huge glowing lights could be seen as massive spells were set off one after another. "We have to go help her! The leader of these soldiers kidnapped Lady Akari and took off through here!"

"I don't think we'll be much help," Nabiki said. Everyone looked over at her. "That lady can cast Rexcalibur. An _SS_ _class_ Anima spell." She looked around the group as that sank in. "You saw what it did. Do any of you _really_ want to be near that fight?" She demanded.

"We have to try something," Yuka said. "Miss Ninomiya is indeed powerful, but an enemy strong enough to keep her going this long... she might… lose!"

"Exactly why I am saying we should stay the hell away from there," Nabiki snapped. "You wanna be there when he gets done with her and decides to 'Kill all witnesses'?"

"I don't care one way or the other," Daisuke said. "It's our duty to protect the Lady. If you want your pay, you'll help," He said.

"Excuse me?" Nabiki demanded.

"He's kind of right, 'biki," Akane said. "That lady has our paycheck." Nabiki and Ranma stared at her for a second before the mage sighed and the pig-tailed teen glared at the black haired knight.

"Oh, this is just wonderful," the mage sighed, raising a hand to her face. "All right, come on, let's go and get this over with then," She said, turning around.

--

The group of ten found a battle torn landscape when they finally made it to the scene of the battle. Patches of dirt and grass burned away, clefts had been cleaved into the earth, and the clouds above were gray with clouds from the rapid fire of thunder magic in the area. They all came over the hill and saw the woman in blue standing over a giant blue crystal with Akari stuck inside. The cloaked man was nowhere to be seen.

"Lady Akari!" Yuka, Sayuri both started running towards the crystal with the girl inside. Daisuke and Hiroshi were both quick to follow, dismounting their horses for the first time since Ranma and his crew had met them.

"Calm down, she'll be fine," The woman in blue said. "The crystal should dissolve in a moment."

"What happened to that other guy?" Yuka asked.

"He fled." The woman turned over to look at the mercenary group that kept its distance. "Who are those people?"

"Ah…" Daisuke started scratching his head. "They're mercenaries. We hired them to help save you and the Lady, though it seems to have been wholly unnecessary now…"

"No, you did well. It was by luck that I got my hands on a Fire tome and was able to recover my own personal tomes. If it wasn't for that, you might all still be fighting." They approached Ranma, who was the apparent leader of the group and Ninomiya stood before him. "You have my thanks. If it weren't for you all showing up like this, my colleagues might have been killed."

"Yes, yes…" Nabiki stepped forward and looked the woman up and down with a scrutinizing eye. "I've got a few questions for you, lady." Ranma and Ninomiya both blinked and looked at her.

"…I will try to answer them to the best of my ability." The sage nodded.

"They've been calling you Ninomiya this whole time. Are you the same Sage Ninomiya that fought in the war twelve years ago?" The woman blinked at her. "You seem to be a very powerful mage, so…"

"You would be right in assuming that I'm that person." The woman said, tilting her head.

"Uh-huh." The mage frowned. "Then, pray tell, why are you traveling with these nobles?... They are nobles, right? Were you not directly serving the Zaira Royal Family afterwards? I mean, it's big news if someone of your repute is simply wandering the country side…" The sage smiled at the younger woman's probing.

"The Lady Akari is a relative of his highness, and a good friend of mine. I volunteered to safely see her to the Republic of Brendt. Is that all?"

"No," Nabiki admitted, still somewhat skeptical of the woman's identity.

It wasn't everyday that one came face to face with a legendary war hero, after all.

"We would like some compensation for our time." Ranma said. "You're big time nobles, so I'm sure you can spare twelve thousand."

"Of course," The woman nodded. "You did play an invaluable role in this commotion, after all. If I might ask a question of my own, who are you people?"

"Just simple mercenaries, mam," Ranma started humbly. "No famous figures such as yourself here."

"Is that so?" Ninomiya tilted her head and smiled at him. "Hmm… It's just, you seemed to be familiar, as if I had seen your face before…" Ranma noted her heavy gaze on him, but did his best to ignore it. "Oh well, perhaps I was mistaken." She turned her head to the side for a second, obviously thinking. When she turned back, she resumed speaking. "Our money is no doubt in the fort. They took it from me when we were captured. Come, we will make the transaction there." She said, starting to walk towards the fort. Everyone moved to follow after her.

"I would like to hear about that, actually," Nabiki said, looking at the other anima magi. "How did they manage that? They didn't seem all that strong."

"That is an interesting tale in itself," Ninomiya said with a smile. "It was the dead of night…"

--

The fights might be a bit on the boring/one-sided side, but… this chapter was just hard to write, and even though a friend and I both noticed it, I decided it would be best to put out what I had and let the story continue. There will be more even sided fights later, don't worry.

Thanks to JSB for his ideas and pointers.


End file.
